Illumination systems for illuminating rearwardly behind a vehicle generally suffer from several problems. A first problem is that a typical system does not provide strong illumination and does not illuminate a field of view that extends very far behind the vehicle. However, government regulations in some jurisdictions limit the amount of illumination that can be provided in an effort to protect onlookers, such as drivers of other vehicles from being blinded or otherwise distracted by such illumination. It would be advantageous to be able to better illuminate rearwardly behind a vehicle without significantly distracting onlookers.
Additionally, some vehicles are equipped with back-up cameras, however, with the poor illumination provided by a typical rear illumination system, the back-up camera may not be able to gather enough light to provide useful information to the driver of the vehicle. It would be advantageous to be able to assist the camera in providing useful information to the driver.